Never Got The Memo
by Olywood
Summary: How did Gaara ever become the Kazekage by being only mediocre, possibly even less than mediocre at taijutsu?


**Prompt: **Sleepy.  
**Usual disclaimer:** DOES NOT OWN NARUTO.  
One shot.  
Reviews; _s'il vous plaît_?

Never Got The Memo.

Lee knocked cautiously on the Kazekage's door; slightly exhausted by his request to travel from the Fire Country to the Wind Country to give him personal taijutsu lessons. Admittedly, Lee was slightly flattered by the Kazekage's request for him to become his personal tutor he was however also slightly curious; curious as to why he had asked for a foreign shinobi and not one of his own Sunagakure shinobi.

Lee listened intently behind the grand wooden door until hearing the faint muffled sound of the Kazekage's voice summoning him into his office. Lee noticed a small smile brew onto the Kazekage's face which gradually helped warm the awkward tension accumulating in the room. "Ah, Lee-kun" the Kazekage waved away the chuunins who were currently surrounding around his office desk. They busied themselves past the Konoha chuunin stood awkwardly by the Kazekage's door, closing it gently behind them after their exit.

Lee made a customary small bow towards the Kazekage; "Gaara-sama."  
Despite being a whole year older than the Kazekage, Lee still thought of it as appropriate to use honorifics that were reserved for superiors like sama, san, or senpai rather than ones used to address the younger like kun or chan. The younger shinobi arose from behind his desk showered with generic Kage paperwork for the village and gestured a hand towards the door. Lee reached back for the door handle, first allowing Gaara to pass through before him.

Konoha had after all taught him manners.

The pair walked through the Kazekage's building quietly, with Gaara occasionally being mobbed to get various pieces of important paperwork finished and properly filed away. Lee focused a slight gaze onto the floor whenever anyone came to bother Gaara about something, gently kicking a stone along the ground. Gaara sighed heavily after being reminded that during his absence there would be a vast amount of paperwork that would accumulate; he still continued to dismiss the urgency to get the paperwork done as soon as possible.

Lee's eyes quickly arose from the ground as Gaara began to scold one of his subordinates, "I've told you, I'm going with Lee-kun for some training. This work can wait till later-" he narrowed his eyes at the Sunagakure shinobi before continuing.  
"Is that all?" his intimidation suddenly began to pierce into Lee.  
The Sunagakure shinobi quickly turned away into the opposite direction and kept muttering over and over again like a broken record "No Kazekage-sama".

Gaara's eyes softened up as he turned back to a slightly startled Lee, "Shall we continue?"  
Lee obediently nodded; he noticed that during that brief moment he had a temper similar to that of Tsunade. Lee smiled to himself before Gaara fixed a curious gaze at the Konoha shinobi. A look of seriousness plastered across the younger shinobi's face, "What is it?"

Lee gently bit his lip, contemplating whether he should tell him that he reminded him of Tsunade. He began to blush a little, "You reminded me of Tsunade-sama a little just then"  
Gaara paused and furrowed his missing brows at the bushy browed shinobi; "I remind you of a woman?"  
Lee paused too, Sunagakure shinobi constantly milling their way through the corridors of the Kazekage's office; "I mean, er… Your temper"  
Gaara narrowed his small jade eyes at Lee; "My temper? Do explain"  
A sweat dropped from Lee's brow, "It, it's just sometimes Tsunade-sama gets a little short tempered when she's bothered about getting paperwork done" Lee tried to make a light hearted smile at Gaara. Gaara folded his arms across his body; "Is that all? I thought you were saying that I looked like a woman" he quickly unfolded his arms and continued towards the exit of the building.

Lee remained where he was stood feeling slightly bewildered; before scurrying off after the Kazekage.  
They arrived shortly at a deserted training area on the outskirts of the village; Gaara un-strapped his sand gourd and turned back towards Lee. Lee noticed Gaara's newly seen features that were usually hidden by his trademark sand gourd; his slender frame hooked Lee's eyes into a slightly perverted stare. Lee quickly shook his head to arouse himself from his gaze before Gaara noticed him staring intently at him.

Gaara avoided eye contact with him for several moments before he begun to speak, "I'm never tired; I always use the sand to defend myself so there's no reason for why I should be physically exhausted"  
Lee stood slightly dazed by his statement and gently furrowed his brows towards Gaara, "And you think taijutsu will help you?"  
Gaara nodded slowly and placed both of his hands onto his narrow hips; "I've been without the One-Tailed Shukaku for almost a year, yet I still can't sleep"  
Lee edged closer towards the Kazekage and continued to listen intently; "I've tried everything but the insomnia has stuck with me" he sighed quietly.

"I haven't had a good night's sleep for years" Lee began to see the sadness in Gaara's seemingly empty eyes and sympathised immediately with the position he was in. Lee then suddenly leapt up into the air and performed a high kick; Gaara remained on the ground looking slightly mesmerised by Lee's graceful movement.

"LET THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH GET YOU TO SLEEP AT NIGHT!"

Gaara made his hands into a fist and made a small smile at Lee; he attempted to swing a punch at the taijutsu specialist. Of course, he missed epically; falling into a pathetic heap onto the burning sand. He spat out the sand from his mouth and scowled back up at the Konoha shinobi; "Aren't you supposed to let your superior win in a battle?"

Lee looked at him for a moment confused as to how this high ranking shinobi could be such a failure when it came to taijutsu. He passed his hand towards Gaara, silently offering to help him up. Gaara looked up at it blankly and forced himself back up.

He put his fists into attack position to fool Lee before swinging a kick down across Lee's unprotected legs. His attack succeeded and Lee tumbled to the ground; as he fell he caught one of Gaara's legs that consequently brought him down too. He felt the sand burn against his skin that had been heated by the mid-day burning Sun; he looked up startled as he saw Gaara tumble down onto of him. Gaara quickly propped his arms up against both sides of Lee's head and looked deeply into Lee's gentle black eyes.

They remained silent for a moment, both blushing uncontrollably. Gaara's arms were close to collapsing under his body weight; he tried shifting his weight between the two until he had to strength to get back up. His arms collapsed under his weight causing an unexpected contact with Lee's lips. They remained perfectly stationary for several moments, before Gaara rolled off Lee's body. Despite the circumstances, Gaara shifted reasonably close towards Lee who exchanged a vaguely confused look with him.

His insomniac fuelled eyes began to slowly close; Lee looked down and smiled at the Kazekage. He leaned down a placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, brushing away the hair covering his tattoo of the kanji for love (愛). Before his eyes completely shut, he looked back at Lee and smiled gently.

"Thank you, Lee-kun. I can sleep now".

**FIN.**


End file.
